Indicative Use Cases – Scenaria

The OASIS use cases (UC) and scenaria of use will be defined in detail in WP2.1 and WP3.1, based upon literature review, field work, technological benchmarking and iterative consensus building among key stakeholders, already present in the OASIS Consortium and user group representatives. We report here below a description of 3 indicative scenaria of use in order to highlight the OASIS concept and function as introduction to the relevant project technologies and developments that will support the scenaria.

OASIS SCENARIO 1: Independent Living (SP2) with and without OASIS

With OASIS

David is a widower. He is 60 years old, overweight and has high blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Following his doctor’s instructions, he is considering to lose weight. The doctor has recommended a hypo caloric diet with low levels of salt. The doctor strongly advises him to take on healthy habits and practice some aerobic exercise.

When he arrives at home he connects to the OASIS collaborative group experiences using an Internet enabled TV, a tool which allows him to join different groups of people with similar interests and virtual communities. He obtains information about a service called “MyDiet”. MyDiet is an OASIS compliant service, that means that it works following an open architecture that allows the interconnectivity of services. He decides to try this service and after inserting his profile (age, gender, weight, height,…) he is subscribed. He will receive every day a personalized menu and basic instructions on how to cook his food; they also provide the list of ingredients that he will need for every meal along with a list of nearby shops he can purchase them from. As an additional service he can order the meal to the catering service of MyDiet. In this case he will receive his pre-defined menu or a similar one.

While connected to the Internet, David’s son Julian, while on a business trip, decides to ask his father about his visit to the doctor. David receives a notification on the TV for the incoming videocall. He explains the doctor’s recommendations and Julian comments that he is using a service named “virtual activity coach”. This service offers individual training plans for everybody, including elderly persons, and he suggests his father to subscribe.

In the process of subscribing the OASIS-compliant service, he is requested to allow search for compatible services. David answers “yes” and the “virtual coach service” discovers that David is subscribed to service MyDiet. The system asks David if he wants to combine both services. By combining services, they can share information to provide added value, for example, results from MyDiet questionnaires about food intake or compliance will be used by the Virtual Activity Coach to generate new exercise sessions and results from exercise sessions (activity level, energy expenditure, adherence to training…) will be used by MyDiet to adjust the menu accordingly. David accepts.

It’s Monday morning, the comfort unit switches off the lights of the garden and opens the blinds. David, while having breakfast, receives the day’s menu. After having a quick look, he stores the menu and the related information in his 4G mobile device. He connects the mobile with the fridge to check if he has the ingredients and is notified that he needs 200g of chicken. As it is a small purchase, he stores the note in his reminder tool, in order to buy the chicken during his daily walk. While he is thinking on these things, the kitchen switches off boiling the water for coffee. David lately tends to forget more doing some trivial things, but the OASIS system helps him prevent unpleasant situations.

While in the bathroom, the intelligent carpet transmits his weight to the nutritional advisor, the tool that is part of the Mydiet service that runs on his mobile phone. This tool provides automatic feedback to the service. In the same way, when he monitors blood pressure, results are stored and sent to the doctor’s patient follow-up system, using the health monitoring system.

During his walk, the activity coach service tracks the distance he has covered, giving motivation messages. He is also reminded to buy the chicken. Also, while walking, he is alerted that the temperature of the house is too high, especially when nobody is at home, he remembers that he forgot to switch off the heating so he acknowledges to the Comfort Control Unit to decrease the house temperature.

Back at home, he thinks about the things he tends to forget. “Perhaps it’s time to exercise my memory” - David thinks. Again, using the collaborative user experience tool, he searches information about memory problems in senior citizens. He is informed about a memory reinforcement program, the brain trainer. This program describes how he can exercise his brain using daily activities. He decides to use this service and of course he links it to myDiet and the activity coach. From this time onwards, the memory reinforce program will use data from the other services as training material for the memory exercises, for example, prompting him how to remember the shopping list.

The previous scenario is schematically depicted below.

Figure: Schematic drawing of the OASIS independent living scenario

Innovation

• Orchestration of different services to obtain a goal.
• Data importing of heterogeneous services to improve the outcome of a specific service for the elderly.
• Architecture for integration of different Independent Living Applications.
• Use of a shared domain of ontologies for context sharing and service orchestration.
• Use of tools for developers, for the service design and development based upon the use of ontologies.
• User profiling and characterisation of nutritional habits, activity habits, social abilities.
• Intelligent semantics engines for the assessment of the user activities.
• 3D multimedia engines for daily activities simulation.
• Web 2.0 trends for social relationship platform.
• Advanced domotics and wireless control for building a smart house.
• Wireless sensor network for monitoring health and activity status.
• Innovative and accessible user interfaces for interaction with the applications.

Without OASIS

David is a widower. He is 60 years old and he has problems of overweight, high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Following instructions of his doctor, he is thinking of losing weight. The doctor has recommended him a hypo caloric diet with low levels of salt. The doctor strongly suggests him to follow healthy habits and practice some aerobic exercise

He thinks that, for losing weight, it is enough not to eat too much food. After a few days he eats exactly as before. The first days he starts to walk long distances but with no motivation he lost interest and finally he always finds an excuse for not going to walk. One day he was frightened because he left the pot on the cooker. The bad smell alerted him. Living alone is no fun he thinks. In a few years he’ll decide to join a community home…

Devices / technologies / infrastructure addressed in scenario

• Information capture elements: Mobile network including PDAs, phones, Webpads,…, Security sensors (gas, water, fire), Vital signs monitoring, Activity monitoring: distance, movement tracking.
• Output elements: internet enabled TV, Mobile network including PDAs, phones, Webpads,…, Actuators networks (blind, lights, curtains, small household appliances, air renovation, …).
• Devices and products: Intelligent oven, Intelligent Fridge, Remote controlled air conditioning and heating.

OASIS SCENARIO 2: Autonomous Mobility (SP3) with and without OASIS

With OASIS

Since their children got married, John and Claudia have lived alone. John is now 75 and Claudia took early retirement at 63 to look after him, but works part-time from home as a graphic designer. While Claudia still drives, John stopped 5 years ago. He is in good physical health, but his eyesight is not good and he tends to forget things and get easily confused. He is supposed to attend routine check-ups at the hospital every two weeks. Claudia is fairly healthy, but has experienced some hearing problems in the last few years.

Tele-working and car travel support for the ‘young’ elderly

Claudia gets up. Her program for the day is to go shopping, then work a bit and cook lunch. She plans to start early, around 8.30 am drive to the local shopping mall, 5 kms away, then bring the things home. She gives this information to her OASIS system by voice, using her Tablet PC. The system connects to the Traffic Management Centre, makes a quick check on the current and forecast traffic levels.

She feels a vibration in her specially equipped belt and sees that there is a message for her from the TMC. It tells her that there is a lot of congestion at the moment and suggests she leaves at around 9.15 am when the traffic has calmed down. She confirms that she will indeed go later. The system automatically connects to the shopping mall car park, and informs her that a space has been reserved in a special area for 9.30.

On her way to the shopping mall, her in-car navigation system (which already knows her destination through connection with the OASIS pre-trip planning service in by use of COF, CCM and agents) informs her that an accident has just happened on her route and suggests a deviation. This allows her to avoid the traffic jam that is building up. She reaches the shopping mall in time and is guided to her reserved parking spot.

Once back from shopping, she gets lunch and then settles down to work. She opens her mailbox on her specially configured Tablet PC which has become her ‘faithful companion’. An email message tells her that her business colleagues have put on the corporate portal the new designs for a project she’s working on. However, she finds that she is unable to access the portal. By giving the password and some keywords to the system, it is able to retrieve the document and download it on her desktop. It recognizes her as an authorized user thanks to the biometric authentication programmed into her PC.

She starts working on the new designs, but is phoned by her neighbour who asks if she can look after her grandson for an hour, as she has to go out urgently.

Figure: Claudia is working (OASIS smart workplaces support scenario)

Claudia doesn’t really want to stop in the middle of a creative task, but leaves her Tablet PC and goes over to the neighbour’s home. The boy is watching the TV, so she has time for herself and switches on the PDA (always in her bag) and continues the work session from where she left it. She manages to complete her work successfully by the time his grandmother returns and goes back home to prepare supper for John and herself.

Travel support for the non-motorised elderly

While Claudia was out shopping in the morning, John received a reminder on his mobile phone of his hospital appointment at 3.00pm. He uses his PDA to find the bus times. It suggests suitable buses, showing the times, numbers and stops in large characters. He prints it out to keep with him on the trip. 15 minutes before it is due an alert is given (a series of beeps), based on the dynAMIcally estimated arrival time. He goes to the bus stop, where a high definition panel indicates the bus numbers in large letters. Next to the number of his service there is a red button which he presses to obtain updates on his bus. When it arrives, it announces, “Bus number 10 is now at the stop”, so he is sure to get on the right one.

On board, a vocal message system announces the stops, so he knows where to get off. The stop where he has to change has a panel identical to the previous one. He presses the number and listens to the message so he can identify his second bus. Five minutes before he reaches his final destination, he uses a voice activated system on his mobile to call the hospital. This alerts a special support service to send someone to the stop to collect him and take him to his appointment.

Figure: John’s short-range trip planning (OASIS support for the non-motorised)

He informs the same person that he wants to make a booking for the return trip with the DRT (demand-responsive service) which operates from the hospital. This is a minibus which plans its route dynAMIcally depending on the destinations of the booked passengers.

It takes a less direct route, but it can deliver him to the door of his house. When on the bus he uses a programmed number on his mobile to phone Claudia and reassure her he is on the way back. Since this system has been in place, he has not missed any appointments as he is no longer afraid to use buses alone and Claudia too is less worried about him.

• Connection of multiple services to obtain complex, multiple and concurrent goals.
• Elderly user security and comfort safeguarded by service personalisation and service disruption events notification (push services), as well as early user and user recipients notification.
• Personalised in-vehicle route guidance, seamlessly connected to the in-home pre-trip planner; both connected to the TMC dynAMIc data.
• Multimedia interfaces, adapted to the user residual abilities and context of use.
• Remote work at home with multimodal dialogue and interface migration as well as biometric authentication.
• Personalised DRT with friendly and secure entry and exit from the service.

Without OASIS

When going out by car, Claudia often used to end up in traffic jams. She drove around in circles before finding a parking spot a long way from the shops. This delayed her and also caused John to worry. She arrived home extremely tired and exasperated, making it difficult to settle down to work or cook. On some days, when she did try to work, she was interrupted by John who wanted a lift to the hospital or other places and he didn’t like taking public transport on his own. She was really thinking of giving up her part time work, in spite of the enjoyment she gained from it.

John on the other hand was always very anxious about attending his hospital appointments. Several times he got on the wrong bus and as a result missed his tests. He also found it stressful to get from the final bus stop to the right hospital department as he had to take the lift and go along several long corridors. He therefore started depending on Claudia to drive him there and wait to drive him back.

Devices/technologies/infrastructure addressed in scenario

Information capture elements: Mobile network, including interface to TMIC, DRT service and business portal, Biometric authentication, Trip planning and route monitoring, both for car drivers and public transport passengers.

Devices and products: Tablet PC, PDA, Mobile phone, Bus stop information panel, Vibrating belt.

OASIS SCENARIO 3: Combined Independent Living and Mobility with and without OASIS

With OASIS

Stella is 72, but still in very good shape, with only some slight memory and hearing deterioration problems. She has been living alone since her husband, Giannis, died. She always adored her husband and his loss 3 years ago really devastated her, but luckily, she managed to overcome this difficulty and learned to live alone in an active and meaningful way. Besides, she has always been a very active person with lots of friends; when she was younger, she would never stay at home for more than 2 weekends in a row… Especially after her daughter, Nikolina, got married and left the house to live in Thessaloniki , Stella would join the weekend-trips of the trekking club that she and her husband belonged to at least once a month. She is a nature-lover, so she has to leave Athens every now and then, to feel closer to nature.

Of course, ageing does not come without consequences… She cannot travel as often as back then, nor can she climb mountains any more. At least she goes on calm weekend trips to hotels close to nature and takes long walks at a fast pace, which is almost like the jogging she used to do when she was younger, choosing the most picturesque, green and calm routes possible. Of course, she has to be careful about the pace of her walking, and about what she eats. But she refuses to give up all of these nice habits completely: “as long as I am physically capable, I will live as I like”, she notes stubbornly every time Nikolina insists that Stella limits her travelling or long walks in the forest. Nikolina knows that her mother would never be happy if she were not able to lead an active life and she fully understands, so she got her this athletic garment that monitors physiological signals, such as ECG, respiration and activity index, including a shock/fall detector. The garment is light and nice looking, so Stella accepted Nikolina’s present with joy. All of the sensor-based measurements of Stella’s physiological data are processed through the PDA that Stella is carrying with her, by OASIS, the services’-based assistant that helps Stella lead an active life within her home and out of it. So this reassures Nikolina that, in case of an emergency, OASIS will immediately notify her, as well as Stella’s physician.

This weekend Stella has arranged through the OASIS tourism support services a trip to Edipsos, a very popular and picturesque village in Evia, right next to a forest and very close to a lake. OASIS arranged, with Stella’s approval, accommodation in a quiet hotel very close to the lake. OASIS suggested this not only because the hotel has specific accommodation for people with hearing impairments, but also because during this weekend the hotel will host the re-union of Veteran Greek mountain climbers and of course, Stella loves to meet other mountain-climbers, hang around with them and exchange funny stories about this or that time on that mountain... Sometimes, she even arranges walks with them. This is what she did last time in Pilio, so OASIS now knows her preference.

Figure: Stella is planning her trip (OASIS trip-planning facility) 

As soon as Stella arrives at the hotel on Saturday morning, she can’t wait to arrange her afternoon walk. She has taken of course with her the PDA that allows her to use the OASIS elderly-friendly route guidance and asks it to arrange a 2-hour walk. It is so easy to use this device, you simply speak to it, using simple voice commands, and you are presented with all the information, summarized in a short text, accompanied by an easy to navigate map, with all POIs marked with large letters. OASIS suggests to Stella a nice walk in the forest ending up at the lake. While planning her walk, she can see on her PDA all the refreshment points that exist between the start and end point of her long walk, as well as the closest medical centre. Moreover, she feels even more re-assured to know that, if she gets lost in the multiple paths of the forest, OASIS will guide her turn by turn back to the hotel, or to the ending point of the walk, depending on her mood. Stella had used this OASIS localization and pedestrian route guidance service in the past, when she got lost, and knows that is very reliable and precise.

Figure: Stella is arranging for her favorite series to be recorded (OASIS remote enviromental control)

Luckily, this time she did not need to use it. The path suggested by OASIS was wide and very well waymarked. While walking, Stella received a notification on her PDA from the OASIS home control service that her favourite series was on and unless it is recorded, she will miss it. Of course! She had forgotten to program the video recorder! Using her PDA she connects to the home network and arranges for the video recorder to start recording. Sometimes, she does not recognize herself. She used to hate technology, and find it so complex… But the OASIS interfaces are so simple and intuitive it has never been easier to use small devices, such as PDAs and smart phones. In fact, the size of the letters in her screen adjust automatically to her age-related sight deterioration.

Figure: Stella is enjoying her walk (OASIS tourism and leisure support) and is sharing her experience with Anny (OASIS social activities support)

She really loved the walk in the forest and then along the lake. So, she bookmarks this route, to re-visit it soon with her close friend, Anny, who is also a widow. She uses the mobile part of the OASIS social communities service to open a discussion session with Anny about her walking experience, share with her photos that she took along the way and show her on the OASIS detailed map the exact path.

Figure: The nutritional advisor and health monitoring advise Stella (OASIS nutritional advisor and health monitoring) 

After a really enjoying, but quite tiring weekend, Stella returns home. These trips are so much fun, but they usually exhaust her… Indeed she has lost 1 kilo. The OASIS health monitoring assistant detects the change in her weight, as well as the excessive activity pattern, and instructs the nutritional advisor to adjust Stella’s diet accordingly, i.e. provide a calorie-rich but light nutritional plan for the coming weeks.

Innovation

• Light and nice looking activity and health monitoring.
• Monitoring transmission to activity and health personalised services.
• Proactive physical activity planning service.
• Smart home environment control.
• Participation in social activities thanks to innovative web experiences.
• Interconnection between nutritional and activity services.
• Personalised tourist services.
• Significant enrichment of the travel information content.
• Elderly-friendly route guidance.
• Dynamic adaptation of mobility services according to user location.
• Self-adaptivity to age-related physical decline.
• Integration of home based and mobile information services.

Without OASIS

Stella is 72, but still in very good shape, with only slight memory and hearing deterioration problems. She has been living alone since her husband, Giannis, died. She adored her husband and his loss 3 year ago really devastated her. This, in combination with the fact that she is experiencing small but constant health deterioration, has forced her to limit the outdoor activities of which she has always been so fond. Stella is now gradually losing contact with the many friends she had when she was younger, and more and more is tending to spend her weekends at home especially after her daughter, Nikolina, got married and left the house to live in Thessaloniki . Early on, Stella would join the weekend-trips of the trekking club that she and her husband belonged to at least once a month. She is a nature-lover, so she used to like to leave Athens every now and then, to feel closer to nature.

However, it is such a burden to plan her trips anymore! She has some special needs to cater for (like her hearing problem) and also prefers to travel to places where medical centres exist at a short proximity, to feel secure. Not only because this is what Nikolina advices her, but also because she feels much safer this way. She would love to meet people still, especially mountain climbers, but it is becoming extremely difficult to find places that satisfy both her personal preferences and age-related requirements. So, she prefers not to travel any more…

Besides, she can no longer do what she really loves above anything else: go for long walks in the forest or in similar picturesque places. She has stopped doing this since the last time she went walking alone in the forest and could not find her way back. Nikolina had sent the local authorities to search for her back then and the whole experience was really frustrating. And even if Stella could always find her way, she still would be anxious that she might fall and no-one would know about it. This growing isolation and lack of activity is however leading to gradual depression and accelerated physical decline.

Devices/technologies/infrastructure addressed in scenario

The key device for the delivery of mobile services is the PDA. Its effective use will require the creation of a telematics platform which provides wireless cover for users as well as location-based services. Other devices / technologies used include: Light wearable monitoring devices, Smart PDA or Smartphone, Sensor Body Area Network, Always on connectivity; seamless connectivity, Remote Home control.